The impeachment notice against the CJI was shot down by Venkaiah Naidu claiming that the Opposition MPs were "unsure" of their own case and that their notice was based on "suspicion and conjectures".

File photo of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. (PTI photo)

Loading...

New Delhi: Having earlier accused Congress of using impeachment notice against the CJI as a political tool, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday blamed eminent lawyers who are also part of political parties of dragging "intra court disputes into the parliamentary process".

In a long Facebook post, second in four days, Jaitley said business persons and industrialists have frequently been accused of attempting to influence policy by using parliamentary processes. But now lawyer politicians were using the same methods.

"Most political parties have given nominations to some of them since their value, both in court and Parliamentary debates, is significant. The incidental impact of this has been a growing tendency of lawyer Members to drag intra court disputes into the parliamentary process. The misconceived motion for the impeachment of the Chief Justice of India is just one example of this," wrote Jaitley in his post.

On Saturday, Opposition MPs handed over the impeachment motion to Vice Chairman of Rajya Sabha Venkaiah Naidu. The notice was moved "on five grounds of misbehaviour".

The notice was subsequently shot down by Naidu claiming that the Opposition MPs were "unsure" of their own case and that their notice was based on "suspicion and conjectures".

In his post titled 'Why the Malafide Impeachment Motion was bound to fail?' Jaitley detailed how it was wrong at so many levels.

Jaitley said the notice was filed on untenable grounds and with the "purpose to intimidate the Chief Justice of India and other judges of the highest judiciary".

"The Congress Party is capable of dragging the judges into an unsavoury controversy and make them controversial, should their judicial opinion not appear favourable in the cases in which the Party has an interest...The Congress Party knew this. It’s object was not the passage of the Motion but intimidation of India’s judiciary," said Jaitley.

Jaitley also said the impeachment notice was "poorly drafted" and it failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the said judge was guilty.

Much like Congress's five counts of misbehaviour against Justice Misra, Jaitley too came up with five reasons why the petition was malafide and improper.

Jaitley termed Congress's decision to file a petition in the Supreme Court a "blunder".

"For the Congress Party to carry forward its mistake of subjecting legislative processes to judicial review would be a blunder. The Parliament is supreme in its own jurisdiction. Its process cannot be subjected to judicial review," said Jaitley.